Technological developments open up new avenues
for design, and BIM is no exception. The 3D function enables complex shapes and
the software’s ability to handle sophisticated calculations will allow
structural engineers to push the boundaries with ever more daring designs.

2.The
‘I’ is more important than the ‘B’.

Pretty pictures might be impressive, but the BIM software truly shines as an information management tool. One reason civil engineers have been slop to adopt BIM is due to the BIM community focusing exclusively on ‘building’ to the detriment of ‘information’.

3.The
colour of BIM is green.

Using BIM properly will cut project times, energy use, and thus costs. BIM will reduce the waste of materials
during construction and building management and eventually assist in
sustainable demolition. Energy modelling can also minimize energy use over a
building’s life.

4.BIM
will destabilise the construction industry.

Unlike CAD, which computerized a single
activity while leaving macro processes largely intact, BIM will change
everything. There’s no point attempting to implement BIM software throughout
the industry with the expectation that things won’t change. They will.

5. Governments
must take the lead.

The benefits of working the BIM way only come
with close collaboration. If one member of a project team is using BIM while
the others continue doing things the old way, there will be limited benefit. To
make the investment worthwhile, someone has to break the stalemate. That
someone is often the government.

6. Companies
must work together as one.

Firms and disciplines working separately,
interacting only through the exchange of construction documents just won’t do
any more. BIM both enables and requires tighter integration.

7. Both
the software and the professionals must work together.

But simply working together isn’t enough –
habits and routines have to be aligned in order to make cooperation natural.
The software will need to be developed to allow seamless integration, and so will
the attitudes of professionals.

8. New
contracts will emerge.

Both digitalisation and close collaboration
challenge the prevailing system of intellectual ownership. There are two
possible development routes. One is increased specialisation where ownership
resides with modelling specialists. The other is consolidation into giant
firms, as companies work increasingly closely, solving ownership
issues.

9. The
software platform is at a crossroads.

The fight for supremacy in the software world
rages on. Depending on the outcome of current power struggles, the digital
environment in the new construction industry will conform to one of three
types: open standard, closed and proprietary standard, or no/several standards.

10. BIM will become the DNA of future
construction.

When the system is sufficiently streamlined we
can start to focus on using it. Once the basic information infrastructure is in
place and we’ve learned to work with it, numerous technologies, in use or in
the pipeline, can be brought in.